Overview
- Developers working with GitHub Copilot were more likely to accept suggestions without critical evaluation, the researchers report.
- Human–AI sessions produced fewer and narrower knowledge-transfer interactions than human–human pairs, often staying confined to immediate code.
- The authors warn that uncritical trust in assistants can foster complacency and contribute to technical debt that surfaces later.
- AI helpers proved useful for routine tasks and reminders, yet fell short of the richer collaboration needed for complex problem solving.
- The work by Saarland University’s software engineering group, funded by the ERC ‘Brains On Code’ grant, will be presented by first author Alisa Welter.